Malefactor’s death in hand (8)
I believe the answer is:
offender
'malefactor's' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'death in hand' is the wordplay.
'death' becomes 'end' (synonyms).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'hand' becomes 'offer' (I've seen this before).
'end' placed into 'offer' is 'OFFENDER'.
(Other definitions for offender that I've seen before include "Transgressor, lawbreaker" , "Culprit" , "guilty party" , "Committer of illegal act" , "miscreant" .)